Hey Droford Gausman was amazing lastnight... oh wait

It's pretty funny that the entire league has figured out how to pitch the jays but Gausman goes out there an just eats pure shit.

Tim Tebow hit a home run off of a Cardinals minor leaguer on the very first pitch he saw in his first game as a pro.

Sandy Alderson = GOAT GM

Who has the tie breaker between Detroit and Baltimore?

There will be a game if there is a tie. Tie breaker would decide home field. I assume its either Head to Head or Common Opponents.

MOOKIE! MVP!

I mean if Toronto finishes ahead of both. Would Baltimore and Detroit play a game to see who plays Toronto?

yes, that's the first thing I said.

0

RED SOX WIN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST!

:D AL East Champs.

:| Red Sox ended up celebrating by blowing a 3-0 lead in the 9th.

Whatever. It'll give the Yankees and their fans a thrill now that they are done. 1980's level bad Yankees coming.

And its be in Baltimore if tie with Detroit

But they won't tie with Detroit cause they're going to have the #1 spot

5 years ago (yesterday now..but still)
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I bought a ticket For the Wild Card game in Baltimore

#eternaloptimist #notreally

Indians/Tigers got postponed

It could end up being a clusterfuck of that have to make up that game on monday and then they win and tie for the 2nd wild card requiring a tie breaker game Tuesday. The Wild Card game itself is Tuesday. Of assume wild card game get pushed back

They would have to go from Atlanta Sunday to Detroit Monday to either Baltimore/Toronto Tuesday than Toronto/Baltimore Wednesday

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Mr. Gary Sanchez would like a word.

And for the record, we never had high expectations this season. Although the 2nd half was quite fun with the youth movement.

I don't think the Yankees will be awful. They have a lot coming thru the system and their current core was good enough to position them in wildcard till the near end.

They also still have money. And they're probably gonna sign one of Machado or Harper when they're available. The Yankees are in fact scary to think about.

Manny will never play for the Yankees.

Wishful thinking at best. Baltimore won't pay him. They'll still be on the hook for the rotting corpse of Chris Davis. Manny is gonna be their next superstar.

Manny isn't going anywhere

Blue Jays just got 1 hit shutout by Ubaldo for 6.2 innings first batter of the game got the lone hit

And hes probably the Wild Card starter

They're not gonna pay him Droford. He's gonna get 30 mil a year. They're not gonna tie half their likely payroll into two players. Had they not been short sighted and given Davis such an awful deal maybe they could've kept him but it's highly unlikely he stays.

Manny in pinstripes sounds so good.

So how long before the Yankees dominate again? 2 years?

2019 but i think they will continue to flirt with the wild card

Manny wants to stay in Baltimore they already started contract talks before this season AFTER the Davis deal was done. They will get it done. Itll probably be a backloaded deal where Manny gets more $ after Davis' contract is over in 7 years (Manny still has 2 on his contract so if they guve him an 8 year deal the last 3 would be post Davis contract )

haha the fix was in for Reds v Cards tonight.

Lol. How much do you think they're gonna back load Droford? Manny can say he wants to stay all he wants. Unless he's gonna take peanuts the first 5 years of the deal, Baltimore is looking at $50ish million a year in two players. Highly unlikely.

Money talks and bull shit walks. I hope you like pinstripes.

Yeah, a loss for them tonight would have guaranteed that the Mets would, at minimum, get a Game 163 even if they managed to get swept in Philly.

So the Mets' magic number is still 2. I really, really hope they can somehow clinch by Saturday night at the latest.

If they haven't clinched anything by Sunday and it's a must-win game, they're going to be pitching Thor which would rule him out of starting the Wild Card game. Yeah you gotta do what you gotta do to get there in the first place but shit...I love Bart but I'd feel way better sending Thor out for a do or die game.

The Mets are listed as having a 97-98% chance of making the playoffs heading into today, and yet I still feel like they can find a way to blow it and have my guard up accordingly.

I'm the Anti-Droford lol.

All Games are the free MLB Game of the Day on MLBTV today.

Orioles pounding the Yankees 8-1 in the 5th. 6 runs in the 5th off 3 home runs by Jones Trumbo (#47) and Schoop (#250 total).

Blue Jays Losing and Tigers winning would put the Jays 1/2 game ahead off the Tigers.

Who would you rather face DET or TOR?

Toronto they're struggling no bullpen not hitting..

The game being in Baltimore means a lot though

Damnit Toronto

Bootista

Jays bullpen implodes again..what a surprise

BIG PAPI!

:D PAPI

I'm going to have to do a 7 day detox after rooting for the Red Sox this weekend

Umps keeping the Jays in this.

Jays are blowing it. Virtual tie for the 2nd wild card spot.

Sox are now officially facing the Indians in the first real round of the playoffs.

God dammit, no help from the Bucs or Dodgers yesterday. A Bucs win would have clinched a Mets playoff berth, a Dodgers win would have at least mesnt there were 3 chances for the Mets to clinch today with Kershaw going.

I've long thought this is going to go to the last game of the season so if the Mets lose and the Cards win, the Mets won't be able to pitch Thor in the WC game. And Seth Lugo has been impressive but it's tough to trust a rookie in a potential Game 163 if it gets to that point.

I really hope one of the wildcard races ends in a 3 way tie.

Holy fuck. They did it.

No Wright. No Walker. No Harvey. No Wheeler. No Matz. No deGrom. Starting Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman, Gabriel Ynoa, Rafael Montero, and Sean Gilmartin in games down the stretch. 2 games under .500 on August 20th. 13 games over on October 1st.

Unreal. I'll gladly eat crow for how this year has turned out. I don't like Collins' managerial decisions most of the time, but he has to get some credit for keeping the clubhouse together.

Yeah it's not going to be easy against Bumgarner or Martinez in the WC game but the fact that they are even there is a small miracle. They're playing with house money at this point.

The Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher rensaisance continues today with Wade Miley. Starters over the last 7 have a 2.05 era and os unsurprisingly are 6-1

Blue Jays balk in the tying run.

I saw that..lol

Os lost but so did the Tigers (thanks to some help from former Os Nick Markakis Chaz Roe and Jim Johnson) and Seattle is tied with Oakland

What happens if Detroit, Baltimore and the Jays are in a 3-way tie which is a shockingly more likely scenario than anyone could have thought?

Jays hold tiebreaker over both

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...oles/91414008/

The Toronto Blue Jays will host the first game of a potential three-way tiebreaker Tuesday while the Baltimore Orioles have opted to play one home game Wednesday instead of playing two potential road games to earn a wild-card berth, MLB officials told USA TODAY Sports.

..
Essentially the Orioles will play the loser of Det/Tor in Baltimore instead of playing Toronto in Toronto and then Detroit in Detroit If they lose to Toronto. Given their road vs home record it makes sense I guess

That makes no sense to me but i'll go with it.

A 4 team tie breaker with Seattle would be Seattle at Toronto and Detroit at Baltimore winners to the Wild Card game.

Why would Baltimore be exempt from playing 2 games if they didn't win the tie breaker?

Seems like a really odd way to do things by leaving it up to the teams.

Whatever was being used to rank them now should have been the actual tiebreaker for Game 163 stuff. #2 vs #3 with the winner facing #1 for the real Wild Card spot.

Most teams would probably take two road shots but the Orioles are lousy on the road ..plus they face the loser of the first game of it were Detroit they would be on their 4t game in 4th city in 4 days (ATL to DET to TOR to BAL)

Heaven forbid Detroit wins in Baltimore Wednesday theyd have to go back to Toronto Thursday and if they win that game they have to go to Texas Friday

ATL to Det to Tor to Bal to Tor to Tex 6 days 6 games 6 cities

No matter what happens today/Monday the Orioles are guaranteed to have at least 1 more game whether it be a 163 tie breaker or the Wild Card. So thetes that..

feel like this is the lamest wildcard race... 3 teams who have done a lot of failing this year.

Most Mets fans are hoping for a Giants loss and Cards win today to force a Game 163...and then the Cards winning that because Martinez matches up better with the Mets' lefty-heavy lineup than Bumgarner.

Idk...I'd kinda rather the Giants just win it today. Not that I want to face Bumgarner but you're going to have to beat an ace sometime in the playoffs anyway. The Mets are going to be on 3 days rest (counting today as rest since the starters will sit), the Giants/Cards would only be on 1 day of rest if they have to play tomorrow.

Baseball is the one sport where rest can be a detriment in the playoffs as it gives a hot team less time to cool down. Just look at how many 1 seeds have sat around for a week and then been buzzsawed by the Wild Card team in the new format.

Mark Teixeira's last game today. Gonna miss that guy.

Os up 3-1
Tigers down 1-0
Jays scoreless with Boston

Boston needs to get their shit together

Or get no hit on the last day off the year losing 5 of last 6.

(insert truck backup sound here)

Red Sox tie it.......but it might not matter as the Braves are embracing their roles as spoilers. Might not be getting any Game 163.

Orioles are a Wild Card..woo!

Detroit loses

Wild Card is Toronto vs Baltimore sure TBD

Thank God, at least those bitch ass Tigers missed it

Woooo Toronto wins!

:mad: Nice of the Red Sox to not care about wanting a possible #1 seed in the AL or even home field against the Indians.

1-5 to end the season and went downhill almost from the start of them clinching the division.

Probably loss of adrenaline etc. Plus their win streak was ridiculous, there's usually a bit of a lull after a season defining division clinching streak of play.

Early prediction : Boston gets swept by Cleveland

The post-game Papi farewell speech was pretty good. Never knew Pedro Martinez was the reason why the Sox signed Papi till today.

Makes sense but just hated how they quickly reverted back to their horribleness pitching and bullpen wise from earlier in the season.

Another regular season done.

Baseball Black Monday should be interesting tomorrow.

Early prediction... Baltimore will not come close to the world series.

Os bullpen and ability to hit at the Rogers Center makes them a headache for the Jays. I'd say Baltimore have a better chance winning in Toronto than at Camden. I'd actually favour Baltimore on Tuesday.

No Droford, this isn't time for you to act like a piece of shit, just being objective.

I expect the Giants to be favored on Wednesday. Grandy and Bruce certainly have to be in the lineup even against the LHP Bumgarner as they've both been red hot, and Wilmer Flores who mashes lefties can't swing a bat so that means Duda will get the 1B assignment. But 3 lefties against Bum is no easy task.

The other concern - the Giants have a lot of speed so when Thor allows runners on it could get dicey given his slow delivery to the plate.

You're wrong

lol sorry Dro, but beating the Jays at this point is MEH. Yeah Jays could get hot and play some baseball but they are kittens right now.

Wait til your team has to face Texas if they get past Toronto. It'll be fucking laughable.

Nobody is beating Boston

MLB will weep if any AL team other than Boston makes the World Series.

So my quick breakdown of the Wild Card games. This is from someone who has watched all baseball religiously this year.

Mets beat the Giants- I give Bumgardner a slight edge over Thor, but the Giants bullpen has been horrific in the second half of this season. Buster Posey has been a shell of his former self this year. And despite the Mets possibly running Jay Bruce out there for a few swings, i really like there bats a lot better. There seems to be a bit more magic in this Mets team. The Mets may have been able to challenge for the division title if they werent so banged up all year. One game. I'm taking the Mets.

Toronto beats Orioles - Orioles starting pitching is there biggest weakness. I'm guessing Tillman is getting the nod for Baltimore. I'll take the Blue Jays bats over Tillman whether at home or on the road to be honest with ya. I think this one will be a blow out.

Jayson Stark has the Red Sox.

Who will win the World Series? It's not who you think
7:21 AM CT
Jayson Stark
ESPN Senior Writer
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So here we go. The Chicago Cubs are going to ...

Wait. Get a grip. What am I doing? What am I saying? What am I getting myself into?

Yes, it's time for that column you've been looking, waiting for all these months. Time for that moment when I (incorrectly) tell you exactly who will (translation: won't) win the World Series.

And it would be soooooo easy, soooooo safe, soooooo obvious to pick You Know Who. The best team in baseball. The winningest team in baseball. The team with the legendary 798-year World Series drought. (OK, so it's 108 -- whatever.) The team that would rock the planet like no one else if it actually, finally, magically wins the World Series.

EDITOR'S PICKS

2016 MLB playoff schedule
Check out the game and series schedules for the 2016 playoffs, including times and TV networks.

What we learned: Giants are in, and now they can win it all
Don't be fooled by the Giants' poor second half or their shaky offense. Now that Bruce Bochy has them into the playoffs, they won't be an easy out.
But sorry, my friends. Can't do it. I made up my mind eight years ago that I am never, ever going to pick the Cubs to win the World Series again. They can thank me later.

The Boston Red Sox are going to win the 2016 World Series. That's my actual (guaranteed to be inaccurate) prediction. But when it came time to write this piece, I felt there were just as many reasons to explain why I WASN'T picking the Cubs as why I WAS picking the Red Sox.

So why not the Cubs? I'll get to that momentarily. But first, it's time to reveal the results of my annual Who's Going to Win the World Series survey of 25 astute baseball executives. And if you're expecting a Cubs landslide here, well, the results are revealing.

I asked the group to pick the team that would advance to the World Series from each league and then predict who would win it. In the case of execs from clubs in contention, I asked them just to pick a team in their league they feared most, along with the club they thought would get to the Series from the other league.


The Cubs are the obvious pick to win the World Series, but that doesn't mean everyone is picking them. Benny Sieu/AP Photo
I conduct this survey every year because A) it's fascinating and B) hey, nothing makes me feel better about my own prognostication ineptitude than knowing that the smartest front-office minds in the game are just as awful at this as I am.

Over the past two years, do you want to guess how many execs who took part in this exercise guessed the eventual winner of the World Series? That would be exactly ONE. None predicted the Giants in 2014. One picked the Royals last year. So keep that in mind as we unveil the results of this year's voting:

American League Favorite (or Most-Feared Team)
Red Sox 16
Rangers 7
Blue Jays 2*

(*Survey conducted while the wild-card race was still raging.)

National League Favorite (or Most-Feared Team)
Cubs 13
Dodgers 10
Nationals 2

World Series Winner
Cubs 7
Red Sox 6
Dodgers 4
Rangers 4

So did you expect it to be that close? Nope. Me, neither. But I got the distinct vibe that many of these folks felt much like I did -- that picking "the best team" never makes you look like a genius anyway, so why not go down some other road?

"Obviously, the pick is the Cubs in the National League," quipped one NL exec. "So I like the Dodgers."

"Too much hype about the Cubs," said another.

"Out of principle, I won't pick them," said an AL exec.

Well, I'm not sure precisely what principle is at work here. But you get the idea. So why not the Cubs? Here are four reasons why not:

Best Record In MLB, Won The World Series
YEAR TEAM
2009 Yankees
2007 Red Sox
1998 Yankees
1989 Athletics
1986 Mets
Across the last 30 years
1. Beware of the No. 1 seed: Only three times in the past 25 postseasons has the team with sole possession of the best record in baseball won the World Series (2009 Yankees, 2007 Red Sox, 1998 Yankees). And to find the last time a National League team had the best record and won it all, you need to go back (gulp) 30 years -- to the '86 Mets. So there's that.

2. The pressure is about to mount: "In the postseason, the pressure on both teams to win is usually about 50-50," one exec said. "But in this case ... the pressure is on the Cubs every game, because of how well they've played, because of their record and, most of all, because of the expectations, especially in that city. If they lose one of the first two games at Wrigley, the pressure will be incredible."

3. What's up with Jake? Two different execs went out of their way to discuss the recent issues of Jake Arrieta, a guy whose work over his past 16 starts (4.44 ERA) looks a lot different than the superhuman impression he'd been doing over the previous year and a half. "Never seen him look so ordinary," one NL exec said after Arrieta's last start. "I would be concerned if I was them."

4. The voice of doom: Finally, the last thing a team saddled with a 108-year title drought needs is MY "support." I've been writing this column before every postseason for more than a decade. I've picked the Cubs three times -- 2003, 2007 and 2008. If you don't recall their jubilant World Series parades in any of those years, you would be correct. That's all my fault. My prediction record is so disastrous, I'm practically the Cleveland Browns of prognosticators. So why would I want to go and doom the Cubs at a time like this? If the bitter residents of Chicago ever decide to blame someone besides a billy goat, I don't need that someone to be me. I think the Cubs will get to the World Series. But somebody else can pick them to win. I'm out.

Phew. Glad I got that out of the way. I feel better now. But more importantly, that allows me to move along to the other big theme of this column:


The Red Sox's offense has proved to be dominant even against the best pitching. John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Five reasons the Red Sox will win

1. What a lineup: The Red Sox have scored an incredible 83 more runs than the next-best offense in the American League (Cleveland). While the Blue Jays had a similar run-scoring gap last season, only one other AL team in the past 80 years has managed to put up a 100-run gap between itself and the pack -- and you need to go back all the way to the 1950 Red Sox to find that one. "Their lineup is so deep and so good," said one AL exec. "The way they work counts, foul balls off, wear down pitchers, they're just so good. And they hit good pitching."

Red Sox rake against strikeout pitchers
Where the Sox rank against pitchers with at least 9.0 K/9.
STAT RATE RANK
AVG .267 1st
OBP .324 1st
SLG .449 1st
OPS .773 1st
Source: ESPN Stats & Info
2. Their strength is greater than any other team's strength: Let's get back to that last line: They hit good pitching. Or to put this in the words of a rival GM: "Boston's offense is the singular best strength of all the teams." Now those are words that get my attention this time of year. When we try to break down which clubs profile best to survive the four-week October marathon, isn't that what we look for -- a team so dominant that even the best teams in the sport can't stop it from doing what it does best? And that's the Red Sox. Against pitchers who average a strikeout per inning or better, the Sox lead the major leagues in average, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS. Against pitchers defined as "power pitchers," Boston's OPS (.798) is 65 points higher than the next-best team. But the Red Sox are also first in OPS against "finesse" pitchers (.848). And they went into the weekend as the only team in the past five years with an OPS of .800 or better against both left-handed and right-handed pitching. So good luck finding a matchup that looks like this team's kryptonite.

3. Their rotation is better than you think: It would have been easy to theorize a month ago that this team didn't have enough starting pitching to navigate October. But you might want to rethink that. Clay Buchholz and Eduardo Rodriguez have made 11 starts between them since Sept. 1. They've allowed two runs or fewer in eight of those starts. Nobody questions whether Rick Porcello is the real deal anymore. ("He's dangerous, super-confident, incredibly intelligent and super-aggressive," said one rival exec. "He's put it all together.") And while you can feel free to question David Price's 5.12 career postseason ERA, "I'd rather have him pitching Game 1 or 2 than a lot of guys," a longtime NL exec said. Price is 8-0 and 2.37 in his past eight starts against teams other than the Yankees (who won't be participating), for what that's worth.

4. Their bullpen is hot: Amazing how the return of Koji Uehara has put the pieces of this bullpen back in place. Since the beginning of September, the Red Sox pen ranks second in the AL in ERA (1.81), and first in opponent average (.198) and strikeout rate (10.4 K/9). The funny thing is, aside from concerns about their left-handed relief, the most questions I heard about anyone in this bullpen were about the closer, Craig Kimbrel, mostly because of his 15 walks in his past 20 innings. ("There are days it looks like he just doesn't trust himself, and I don't know why," said one scout.) But if the biggest worry in this bullpen is a man with 83 strikeouts and just 28 hits in 53 innings, that doesn't sound like much of a crisis to me.


5. Papi Power: Every once in a while in sports, the script writes itself. So there's just something about the way the stars keep lining up for David Ortiz's retirement tour that feels as if there could be one more incredible chapter to come. One NL exec admits that when he picked the Red Sox, "that's part of the equation. There's definitely something magical about it." Well, if there is, you might want to file this away. According to Elias Sports Bureau research, only two position players in the past 60 years (Dal Maxvill and Gene Tenace, back in the 1960s, '70s and '80s) have won four World Series without sneaking onto the Yankees. And nobody has won four for a team that wasn't the Yankees since Jim Gilliam did it for the Dodgers in the '50s and '60s. Well, Big Papi already has three rings. And October looms.

So there you have it. Five carefully thought-out reasons why this pick makes sense, backed with the reassuring support of a bunch of really bright people in the game. Now what could possibly go wrong?

Outside of the fact that any team in this tournament (including the Cubs) could turn into the 2014 Giants as soon as this fun begins, I can think of only one thing that could get in the way of the Red Sox's fourth ride on the duck boats in the past 12 years:

That they just got picked by me to win it all, of course. Which means they're now officially doomed.

Red Sox lost 5 off their last 6
Craig Kimbrel sucks
David Price chokes in the playoffs

The Indians will beat the Red Sox in at least 4 but maybe a sweep.

shut the fuck up

That reminds me. The Indians are in the playoffs. Cute.

I think the only potential WS matchup I have no interest in seeing is Giants/Red Sox. 2 fanbases that have won a ton over the last decade, meh.

Awards

NL
MVP: Kris Bryant
CY: Jon Lester
ROTY: Corey Seager
MOTY: Dave Roberts
CPOTY: Wil Myers
Best Moment: Bartolo Colon HR
Worst Moment: Jose Fernandez :(

AL
MVP: Mike Trout
CY: Rick Porcello
ROTY: Michael Fulmer
MOTY: Terry Francona
CPOTY: Ian Desmond
Best Moment: Judge/Austin HR back to back in first career ABs
Worst Moment: Juan Uribe 106 MPH ball to the groin

Trout won't win mvp because voters are stupid and they'll hold his team stinking against him. Mookie Betts is more than likely your 2016 mvp.

Agreed. I was just giving my picks if I had a vote.

Came very close to Kluber over Porcello and a few other names I debated with Lester, especially Scherzer. Both Cy Young races were really tough calls.

In b4 Droford posts a 5 paragraph expository essay on the merits of Zach Britton winning the Cy Young

I'd go Kluber over Porcello. The wins do not give me googley eyes.

Here's my argument on why Britton shouldn't the CY award; Mariano Rivera, arguably the greatest reliever of all time, never won the award.

Only thing Porcello got going is the wins. If that's all we're looking at in terms of Cy Young voting, the system is flawed/broken.

Tanaka got a good case for Cy Young. Probably won't win, but he's got the numbers in the right categories to make an argument.

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...70/347/f52.gif

Walt Weiss out as Rockies manager after the team didn't bother to renew his contract.

Robin Ventura out as White Sox manager. Former Cubs manager Rick Renteria got hired as the new manager for the team.

Did Rivera ever have a .54 ERA ? No his best was 1.38 in 2005. Britton only have up 7 runs total (4 earned) Rivera never had a year in single digits for either.

Only 3 times Did Rivera have more Ks (83 80 and 77) than Britton 74

Zach Britton only allowed 1 HR Rivera allowed 2 twice.

Britton only allowed 38 hits in 67 innings. Rivera only once allowed less (35) but in 47 innings.

I could keep going